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Star Trek - I, Mudd
episode 2.8
Raumschiff Enterprise - Der dressierte Herrscher
USA 1967
produced by Gene L. Coon, Gene Roddenberry (executive) for Desilu, Norway Corporation/NBC
directed by Marc Daniels
starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Roger C. Carmel, Richard Tatro, Alyce Andrece, Rhae Andrece, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, George Takei, Walter Koenig, Kay Elliot, Mike Howden, Michael Zaslow
written by Stephen Kandel, created by Gene Roddenberry, music by Samuel Matlovsky
TV series Star Trek, Classic Star Trek, Star Trek (original crew), Harry Mudd
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Somehow, an android, Norman (Richard Tatro), has infiltrated the
Enterprise and is gradually bringing her under his control, all to steer
her on the way to his home planet. And soon enough, Captain Kirk (William
Shatner) and crew have to learn there's no override, and any attempt at
technical trickery would make the ship explode. So they give in to the
android's demands, who asks that Kirk, Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Bones McCoy
(DeForest Kelley), Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) and Chekov (Walter Koenig) all
beam down to the surface ... where they are welcomed with open arms, and
find a place resembling paradise with beautiful female and handsome male
androids, all willing to serve them. And then they are brought to their
leader, who turns out to be Harry Mudd (Roger C. Carmel), intergalactic
con-man and scoundrel whom they had an earlier encounter with in the
episode Mudd's Women.
Apparently he has crashlanded on the planet earlier, but the androids made
him their leader - so it looks as if he has made it, but unfortunately,
the androids are less than willing to ever let Mudd leave again. And thus
he has, in his own way, summoned the Enterprise, to give them other human
specimen in exchange for himself, and to equip himself with a ship to
leave in style. Only the plan doesn't work as he expected, because while
the androids welcome more human company and refuse to ever let the
Enterprise crew go again, the have no intention of letting Mudd go in
their stead. So Kirk comes up with a plan: Since the androids are all
driven purely by logic, they create all sorts of illogical situations
(somehow resembling an absurd theatre play) to shut the androids down -
and it works, to the last. When they prepare to leave again, they decide
to leave Mudd behind with the androids (which they have reprogrammed and
switched on again), letting him continue to be their ruler - but as a
punishment, they have also created an android of Mudd's constantly nagging
wife Stella (Kay Elliot), or rather 500 copies of her, so that Mudd won't
get any sleep anytime soon ... Now truth to be told, I, Mudd
is not one of the better episodes of Star Trek, its premise
is left a bit too under-developed, its concept is over-simplified, and
let's be honest, the finale is rather silly. At the same time though, I,
Mudd is much fun to watch, especially for its camp factor coupled with
its inherent silliness. And it seems the cast really had the time of their
lives doing it, too, which translates rather well onto the screen. So as
long as you don't expect utter greatness, it's well worth a watch.
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